Episode Details

For years, Friday night meant TGIF, pizza on the table, and the Winslows in the living room. On this episode of Up+Adam, Adam Montiel sits down with Telma Hopkins, who played Aunt Rachel Crawford, and Kellie Shanygne Williams, who played Laura Winslow, on the iconic sitcom Family Matters. Together, they revisit the legacy of a show that became more than television. It became part of America’s family ritual.

Now reunited for their iHeartPodcast, Welcome to the Family, Telma and Kellie are rewatching every episode in order and inviting listeners behind the curtain. In this conversation, they reflect on the 35-year legacy of Family Matters, the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of Steve Urkel, what it was like being part of TGIF at its cultural peak, and the very real awkwardness of growing up under studio lights. Telma shares how her grandmother once told her no one would ever pay her to “act silly” and the full-circle moment when that prediction flipped. Kellie opens up about navigating adolescence on national television and the joy of seeing generations still connect to the same loving feeling the writers intended.

This is nostalgia with depth. It is about representation, humor, growing up in public, and the kind of cast chemistry that still feels like family decades later.

Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kellie

• https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-welcome-to-the-family-wit-303353348/

Follow Telma Hopkins

• https://www.instagram.com/telma_hopkins

Follow Kellie Shanygne Williams

• https://www.instagram.com/kellieswilliams

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Listen to Up+Adam with Adam Montiel:

• Official Website: ad